RecklesslyMindful

Chapter 3: An Unexpected Visit Nearly a month had passed since Fern, Becky and their new friends had gone on their camping trip, and fall had now been in full swing for a significant amount of time. It was mid-November with Thanksgiving on the horizon, and most of the leaves had fallen from the trees, leaving their bare skeletons exposed to the air and wind, which was growing increasingly colder. On this afternoon following a full day of school, Fern was killing time at her house while waiting for Matt to arrive and help her with her algebra assignment. She had found the subject they were currently discussing quite difficult to wrap her head

Chapter 2: The Camping Trip “We really don’t have to do this now, Fern, if you don’t want to,” Becky insisted as they packed the back of her car full of supplies. On this Saturday morning, not long before noon, they would be taking off for their small camping trip Becky had promised Fern they would try and do. Once finished, they would make the drive outside town and into the woods. Becky was glad she had finally just gotten her license, so now they didn't have to rely on anyone else to get them there. There, they planned to meet Matt, Jackie and Inez, who would be arriving in Matt’s truck, in the same spot they

Chapter 1: The Next Morning Becky Botsford, otherwise known as WordGirl, sat down on the front steps of the high school, looking out at the school grounds before her, where several other students were milling about, killing time before the official beginning of the school day and their first classes. She was glad on this day that her bus was one of the earlier ones to arrive, so that she would already be prepared to jump up and greet and assist her girlfriend when her own bus pulled up. The past couple weeks had been some of the most trying, eventful, confused and emotional ones of Becky’s life. Mere days prior, she had been forced to

“There!” Becky huffed with satisfaction, pulling down the oven door and removing a hot tray of fresh chocolate chip cookies from inside and setting them aside. “Not too shabby huh, Huggy?” Huggy, who was sitting nearby at the kitchen table while wearing a chef’s hat and gorging himself on candy canes, gave her a toothy grin and a thumbs up. “Thanks for your help, by the way. I don’t think they would have come out as good without you assisting me. I’m glad Inez had that recipe of her grandmother’s for us to use.” Huggy nodded, hopping up from his seat and grabbing one of the cookies b

Chapter 17: The Proposition The five kids all came through with their agreement and met up outside after school, breaking away from their respective crowds that had been following them around for much of the day. Climbing into Matt’s truck, Jackie in the passenger seat and the other three girls barely having room to squeeze together in the backseat, they drove up out of town and into the woods in the general direction of where they had seen the ship crash. “How are we going to even find our way there?” Matt asked as he got off the highway and pulled onto a two-lane back road that wound its way through the hills, past where t

Chapter 16: A Dark Confession When Becky poked her head through the doorway, the sight she saw was both relieving and heartbreaking. Fern was sitting up in the bed closest to her while the curtain next to her, fully pulled back, revealed the other bed to be empty. She was wearing a hospital gown and reading one of her Sherlock Holmes books, which Becky figured her parents must have brought for her so she wouldn’t be entirely bored. She could only hold it up with one hand though, as her left arm was slack at her side, encased in a thick layer of gauze and held up by a sling. She looked content enough, but seeing her crush injured like t

Chapter 15: The Aftermath Cheers began erupting from the crowd surrounding Becky as she slowly landed back on the ground. She was swarmed by people all around her, including a handful of news reporters. She barely noticed, however, due to how shocked she was by what she had just seen and done. She had never gone so far as to kill any of her adversaries before, even if it was largely accidental and admittedly justifiable. She didn’t even bother trying to answer anyone’s questions. She only robotically shook a few people’s hands before taking off  for the spot where she was fairly certain her friends had landed, wanting to ma

Chapter 14: Hero of the Day Fern made her way back through the dark hallways aboard the Grim Wreaker and up the stairs. She unfortunately hadn’t been paying very close attention on the way down towards the boiler room earlier that morning, and she hoped she was headed in the right direction and wouldn’t hit any dead ends or, god forbid, come across Hacker again. As she was climbing up what she believed was the last flight of stairs before reaching the top floor, she felt the ship come to a halt all around her. This threw off her balance, and she was forced to grab the rail to keep from falling backwards. After taking a moment to

Chapter 13: The Sweet Escape None of them were certain exactly how much time had passed. For all they knew, it could have been as little as ten minutes or as much as ten hours since they had been locked into the boiler room. As grim as the situation was, the upside to being left there by themselves was being allowed some time to attempt to get themselves together. Matt and Inez were doing what they could do help Digit with his injured wing. Thankfully Matt always had a small emergency kit in his trusty red backpack, and he had been able to bandage the wing a bit. It had been a tricky process though, given how sensitive the bird’s wing